Anna’s Rajghat fast has just proved the cynics wrong

So much has happened so fast in the context of the pro-Lokpal, anti-graft movement in Delhi in the last few weeks that it’s easy to succumb to cynicism and wariness.

I must confess I was a bit of both while driving to the Rajghat this noon to have a dekho and feel of the day-long fast of Anna Hazare and his band of anti-graft crusaders.

My reading was that people were getting somewhat confused, disenchanted and even bored with what was happening. Despite all the government bashing in the media, it had succeeded not only in dividing the movement against corruption but also given it a political hue. Again, it was a working day and Rajghat was nowhere as near the city centre as the original venue, Jantar Mantar, and my assessment was that the scorching heat would only add to the fatigue which usually sets in after the kind of hype and overexposure one has seen build up on the issue of corruption these past few weeks.

I was wrong. It was a celebration of a fast at Rajghat.

There was no shortage of enthusiastic, courteous and involved volunteers. Distributing leaflets, sitting behind a registration desk taking small donations and giving away membership forms and holding colorful buntings, flags and banners.

The number of karyakartas could easily outnumber those usually seen in a well organised political rally.

And unlike a political rally nobody looked like a hired help in the Anna show.

People just kept pouring in, in swanky cars as well as the more modest models, on two-wheelers, using the city transport system and even on foot.

Families were there. Schoolgoing brothers, mothers with their daughters, uncles, aunts, even grandparents. And the gathering was truly representative with a fair sprinkling of India as well as Bharat. There were students from some of the most expensive and sought after public schools in the capital as well as government run institutions. The chic of Delhi university was rubbing shoulders with the young coming from neighbouring Haryana to the distant Chattisgarh.

The mood was upbeat, determined and focused.

Manish Sharma, a tourist guide in his mid twenties, said there was no diminishing of enthusiasm.

“It will be a long battle. I was at Jantar Mantar. I am here today and I will come again whenever Anna will call.”

Lakshya and Shtitij are sons of a police officer and had come from Noida. Students of class 10 and 12 respectively, the rising mercury was only strengthening their resolve.

“The only thing which is stopping our country from becoming the number one country in the world is this scourge of corruption. It’s a disease. We need to unite and fight the menace of corruption and eradicate it from our system.”

Amit is a young journalist from Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh who has been in Delhi for little over a year. He works with Navbharat Times. With all the confidence and knowledge of a 27-year-old he told me that this (Anna’s) movement was different.

“I have been reporting on this (corruption) beat for sometime now. I was there on the night when Ramdev and his supporters were forcibly dispersed by the police. There were more people with the Baba but there is more involvement of people here (with Anna). There is an emotional connect here. It is a people’s movement.”

There were many others. The housewife Anuradha who was there with her teenage daughter who said the only difference between Jantar Mantar and Rajghat was the temperature.

“It’s hotter today. Rest is the same. The mood is as electric and as patriotic. Everyone also feels as strongly connected to Anna as before and the issue is also the same. We want to root out corruption.”

The lusty cheering for Anna only confirms what the people are saying. The slogans were familiar and one listened to them with a sense of déjà vu. One had heard similar slogans when VP Singh’s campaign was gathering momentum around 1987-88. Or what one heard as school going children when JP addressed post emergency public meetings.

The most popular slogan of the day was “Anna nahi aandhi hai, desh ka naya Gandhi hai (he is not Anna but a tornado, he is the new Gandhi)”.

The comparison with Gandhi is not easy to comment upon and I am sure even Anna would find that a bit far-fetched at this stage. But there is something about him—especially when Anna talks about him having no land, no house, no bank balance—which endears him to the masses who see in him a selfless sanyasi, a fakir of sorts whose struggle against corruption is truly selfless.

Anna’s persona definitely overshadows that of all others in the anti-graft movement.

In cricketing terms he is a Tendulkar and Dhoni rolled into one! Those who understand the language of films better Anna is to the anti-graft movement what Amitabh Bachchan was to the the Indian movie industry when the angry young man reigned supreme.

There is a difference though. People connect not with his charisma but with his credibility.

So when he mouthes a homily about nobody observing the anniversary and jayanti of a billionaire but only remembering the sacrifices of a Bhagat Singh and Mahatma Gandhi, the crowd roars in approval.

The roar gets louder when Anna says he would rather die for the country than die of a heart attack.

“Sar kata sakte hain aye watan tere liye”.

With Anna declaring that he would launch a nationwide agitation from August 18—dubbing it the second war of independence ( azaadi ki doosri ladai)—if a strong Lokpal bill is not in place by then, the stage appears set for this battle between the government and Anna’s band of anti-graft campaigners moving onto the next level if nothing happens by then.

But there’s nothing like a fait accompli in this story. Even a day is a long time in Indian politics.

A lot can happen in the 70 days between now and August 18.

So watch out for this space!

Sanjeev Srivastava, Editor at large, Firstpost